AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And abandon the rest of her life in the process. When did Holly do anything for herself? Not that Luke was an expert, but there had to be more to life than work, home and playing warden to an eight-year-old. “I appreciate you filling me in.” Luke wasn’t one to hope for much, but right now, he really, really wanted to be wrong about who had declared war on the sheriff’s station—and him. “If he has done anything recently, I’ll do what I can to intervene.”
“I appreciate that. To be honest—” she laughed “—I’m a little relieved. I thought for sure given how he feels about his grandfather he might have done something to you. He can be overprotective of people he likes. He even got into a fight last year defending one of his classmates from a bully. Granted, he could have gotten suspended for two days for punching the little creep in the gut but—” Holly shrugged. “I was able to convince the principal to keep it out of his record.”
That meant Simon had never really been made to pay for his extracurricular activities, save for being stuck to his mother’s side for weeks on end. Not good. Not that it was his place to criticize. It wasn’t as if he had a kid or kids of his own. But if he could help steer Simon in a better direction...
“Hey, boss.” Fletch knocked on the door and poked his head in. “Ozzy thinks he’s found a way to retrieve the emails, but it’s going to take a call from you to smooth things over with the server. And the mayor called. He heard about Winters. Asked for you to call him back.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“I have to go anyway. I’m... Um.” Holly picked up her purse and stopped at the door. “I’m glad you’re okay. I hope Kyle will be when all this shakes out.”
“Assaulting a police officer isn’t the best idea in the world,” Luke said, trying to keep his tone light.
“Oh, that’s right. Any idea why he did it?”
“I know exactly why he did it,” Luke said. “Which is why I didn’t arrest him for it. I’ll walk you out.”
* * *
LUKE WAITED UNTIL after sunset before setting the alarm and closing up the station. He and Ozzy had been particular in what cameras and sensors they set up and where, and had even gone so far as to have the camera feed stored directly on their new off-site server. Luke would be able to pull up footage or a live feed from his laptop at any time.
Driving down Monarch Lane with Cash riding shotgun, he thought about his revelatory conversation with Holly. She would not be thrilled to know she’d given him information he could use against Simon. It was both disturbing and comforting to think Simon was probably the one behind all the shenanigans at the station.
The fact an eight-year-old was capable of the hacking? Luke didn’t want to think what the kid would be able to pull off after going to that gifted school of his.
But whatever the circumstances, Simon needed to be given a chance to redeem himself.
And chances—first, second or otherwise—were why Luke was alive today.
Streetlamps blinked on as he pulled his truck into Jake Gordon’s driveway. He unloaded Gert the coffeemaker out of the truck bed, lugged it to the front door, set it on the brick patio and rang the doorbell.
The porch light burst on before the door opened.
“Luke.” Jake looked surprised but happy to see him. “What brings you by?” He scrubbed a hand over his scraggly face.
“I brought you something.” He stepped to the side.
“I heard you got a new machine,” Jake said as he looked down at Gert. “Along with an earful from my daughter because of it.”
“I thought maybe you’d like it back.”
“Honestly?” Jake shook his head as if he were looking into a grave. “Gert makes the worst coffee in the hemisphere. I never had the heart to tell Holly and Simon. But I appreciate the thought. Bring it in. I can stash it in the garage for now. Maybe I’ll write it into my will.” He chuckled.
The skin on Luke’s back stretched again as he bent to pick up the big metal box, but he followed Jake inside and set it on an old hardware bench in the garage.
“How about you tell me why you’re really here?” Jake asked when the older man closed the door to the garage behind him.
“If you have some time, I need your help,” Luke said. “With Simon.”
Jake sighed and closed his eyes. He leaned heavier on his cane. “If memory serves, you could grill up a pretty good steak. That still the case?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, then, you cook. And I’ll give you the lowdown on my grandson.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“GOOD MORNING, DAD.” Holly carried a plate stacked high with banana-walnut pancakes over to table seven, refilled the customer’s cup and planted a kiss on her father’s cheek. “What brings you by so early on a Friday morning?”
“Since when is eight o’clock early?” Jake chuckled at the sight of Simon with his head in his arms sound asleep at the counter.
“Since I haven’t seen much of you since, well...” She shrugged. She was having too good a day to think about how reclusive her father had become since his job had ended.
“I’m meeting Luke for breakfast. Can I grab a booth?” He motioned to the empty one behind Simon.
“Sure.” Ah, Luke? She scrubbed her free hand against her thigh. “You want your usual? Paige is filling in for Ursula for a few hours. Did you know she and Matilda are teaming up for a weekend bake-off in Monterey?” It was the first time Holly could remember the senior sisters not competing against one another. That alone should prove attendance-worthy.
“I heard rumblings of it.” Jake aimed a look through the kitchen window, where Paige was whipping up a batch of batter for Belgian waffles. “Paige is working out, then?”
“In this case, taking a chance has paid off. I don’t think I could keep this place going without her.” Being able to get in a decent night’s sleep, along with baking her pies in the morning instead of late into the evening, made her feel as though she’d struck gold. “I hate to say it, but the mayor’s expansion proposal might pay off after all.”
“Whatever you do, don’t tell Gil,” Luke said as he patted his hands against the poufy khaki uniform jacket staving off the morning chill. He blew on his hands. “Not yet anyway. Morning, Holly.”
“Good morning.” The sight of Luke first thing should have set her teeth on edge. Instead, all she could think was the man definitely knew how to wear a uniform. And that quirky, semiamused grin of his set her heart to fluttering faster than a flood of butterflies. “Coffee?”
“Dump it on my head, please.”
“Not until your wound heals.” Holly was glad to see him displaying his sense of humor again.
“What wound?” Jake’s forehead creased.
“I’ll fill you in over breakfast,” Luke said.
Would Luke have told her father anything if she hadn’t said something? “What can I get you, Luke?”
“Surprise me,” he answered.
“You heard the man, Paige,” Holly called, her voice rousing Simon, who drew sleepy eyes around the sparsely filled diner. “Surprise him.”
* * *
“ARE MY EYES deceiving me, or have you and my daughter finally called a truce?”
“It appears so,” Luke murmured as he slid into the booth across from Jake. The other day hadn’t been his imagination after all. “Let’s not jinx it.” He kept a watch on Simon out of the corner of his eye. The kid might be smart about a lot of things, but his spying technique wasn’t going to win him any prizes for covertness. Simon had a difficult time controlling his facial expressions. Or hiding the fact he couldn’t really hear anyone without turning his head in their direction.
Luke and Jake were counting on both quirks as they sipped their coffee and kept their conversation loud enough to tempt the pair of small, devious ears.
“You held Rex Winters all this time?” Jake frowned over the top of his white porcelain mug after Luke filled him in about Kyle.
“He’s being transferred to county jail this morning,” Luke said. “That reminds me. Fletch mentioned something about it being unusual for Winters to leave his house. What’s with that?”
“Hard to function when your blood’s eighty proof,” Jake said. “Sorry.”
Luke shrugged. “Why? It’s the truth. My old man could barely hold a conversation let alone operate a motor vehicle when he’d been drinking.”
“Is Ozzy spending the night in the office?” Jake asked, sidestepping Luke’s inadvertent trip down a not-so-welcome memory lane.
“He and Fletch switch off about midnight.” Luke had offered to take one of the shifts, but both Ozzy and Fletch had insisted he go home. A knock on the head had been eventful enough without adding babysitter to the hostile drunk in cell three to the crapper of a week. Luke watched Holly refill coffee cups and talk with her customers. It hadn’t all been crap. “Besides—” Luke cleared his throat “—Ozzy’s still working on downloading the surveillance footage from our security system.”
